Dear Parents,

I could not wait to get home to tell all of you who were not with us on our field trip about the amazing, heart-opening experience I think we all had today.  The students broke up into groups easily and without incidence as we headed out to Jewel in Des Plaines.  Each group of three or four students did a great job of trying to find nutritious, healthy, well priced food to purchase for the food pantry at WINGS.  The idea was to purchase groceries for a family of four to sustain them for one week and spending only $40.00.

This was eye opening, as you can imagine.  A few shoppers asked what we were doing, and what charity we were supporting.  One shopper gave a group extra money to spend for groceries! How awesome is that??! After purchasing the groceries, we left Jewel and headed for WINGS to meet with Dawn, the donations coordinator, and learn about the work that WINGS does for women in need of shelter and support.  After learning about the shelter and the work they do, it was time to get busy.  Those students, who wanted to help organize and fill in the food pantry, did so and those who wanted to create posters and decorations for Valentine's Day, did so.  The volunteer who helped lead the students (and parent helpers) in organizing the food pantry was impressed with how efficiently and well everyone worked to get this job done.  We would have to agree.

All of the students worked so well together and kept busy until the job was done.  The Valentine's Day decorations look great.  I know we have very creative students and they didn't stop until all wall space was covered and decorated.  We all left with full hearts and the very real sense that we did something very fulfilling, useful and necessary.  Felicia and I are so proud of all of our students and today was no exception; they all did their best work on behalf of those in need.  I could go on and on....

We do want to give a huge thank you to our parent drivers (helpers) because without them, we could not have made this field trip a success.  So, thank you very much to Susan Hirschhaut, Jeff Friedstein, Dan Safran, Teri Zander, Randi Sagall, Julie Gartner, and Forouz Farahmandpour.  Also, thank you for pitching in to help organize the food pantry and lead the students through Jewel. We also hope that our students who could not make it today feel better--so many sick students, so get well soon.  

We will not be meeting next Sunday, February 15th, because the teachers have the Midwest CAJE conference. We look forward to seeing everyone again on Sunday, February 22nd.

Todah rabah!  Thank you so very much for making today so much fun and so meaningful!

 Shavuah tov,
 Ronna & Felicia